SNIP
*** Eighteen Months Ago - Starbase 13 ***

The black disc’s image opened to show a medical bay. There was nothing special about the room itself. It looked like any large medical facility found in Starfleet. What made this room unique was the people in it. The first few seconds showed Ian talking to Lexi who was obviously in labor. Long minutes dragged so that only someone with a strong personal attachment to Lexi or Ian would sit through Ian telling Lexi to breathe and Lexi nodding as she winced holding Ian’s hand through it. After five minutes there was a break in the stream showing someone had edited the footage. The relatively quiet soundtrack had a loud shrill cry pierce the room as the camera panned to a young dark-haired doctor happily announcing Lexi had just given birth to a girl.

“We should do that one day,” a voice Chris instantly would know stated. If he hadn’t recognized the voice as Lt. Kate O’Neill it would be confirmed as she panned the camera to the doctor’s face. “Hold out about finding the sex,” she finished her thought. Both Kate and Shaun were shipmates of his on the USS Odin. He wouldn’t say he was close to them but Chris definitely would know who Shaun was. The medical staff of the Odin was one of the most peculiar crews out there. Grecken and Ean were always pranking each other and at one time the CMO was a large sentient orangutan by the name of Pongo.

“Katie bug that way,” the doctor pointed her to what she had been asked to film. As the camera panned to where it should have been Ian’s voice could be heard asking, “you didn’t know the sex?” The visual footage arrived just in time to see Lexi look at Ian as she responded.

“Not by choice. I had planned up until about four hours ago to do it with Chris only that conversation never came up. If he wasn’t going to be here for the birth I thought the least I could do was let him find out what we were having,” Lexi pushed herself to a seat position waiting for the doctor to finish what he was doing so she could see the baby for the first time.

“You know doll he would have needed more than four hours to get here so that is kinda a cop out,” Ian teased her gently.

“Shhh,” Lexi hushed her long-time friend and impromptu birth coach. Right now was not a time to point out the obvious as Doctor Grecken handed Lexi thier baby daughter.

“You have a healthy,” Shaun started to say the length and weight but was cut off by a break in the footage again. By now Chris would start to realize the breaks were intentional and not by Kate O’Neill. It made no sense to cut out all the important things one would want to know about the birth of a child. Since Lexi would not cut up or destroy the recording it stood to reasonable assumption Aubrey had made a copy and edited parts out. Before Chris had even a moment to contemplate why the scene opened to Lexi holding Ruth.

“You have no idea how much I love you. There hasn’t been a second since I found out I was going to be your mommy that I hadn’t wanted to hold you.” The words accompanied the image of Lexi gently stroking the top of the baby’s fingers allowing Ruth to curl around Lexi’s fingers as if they were holding hands. “I am going to admit that I am not sure how this mommy-daughter thing is going to work out but I am going to try my hardest and love you every step of the way.”

While the angle was not perfect, Chris would be able to see a small baby with a lot of dark hair cradled in Lexi’s arms. “You gonna wake up for me pretty girl,” Lexi asked. “Come on lovebug,. Wake up for mommy for just a minute?” hris would never see the moment but he could see the look of pure shock on Lexi’s face as she and the infant looked at each other. “You have your daddy’s eyes. Your daddy has the most amazing eyes. When he looks at you, whatever feeling you are experiencing is twice as much. Love, happiness, security. Your daddy is a good man. I love him so much. We just,” Lexi looked up and for a split second looked like the tears in her eyes were not of happiness but something else. The view of Lexi’s face disappeared as she directed her gaze downward and the camera could only capture the image of Lexi again holding a small bundle in her arms. “One day you will meet him and he is going to be so proud of you. He will take you out for ice cream and listen to your problems. Your daddy will be there every time you need him. He just needs some time to get stuff together okay. Just for know though, my sweet sweet baby Ruth, he loves you more than he ever thought was possible and for the record. That is how you got your name.” Lexi let out a small laugh. “He always had baby Ruth and Reece cups on him at college. I hope he likes the name. I guess I should have asked him. I probably should have asked him a lot more things about you but don’t worry. We have a lifetime to ask him stuff okay,” Lexi leaned down kissing Ruth’s head.

There was only one more break in the film. When it returned to streaming audio and visuals the scene did not include Lexi but Ian holding the baby in a chair. “I am Uncle Ian, I am the cool Uncle… don’t let your mum tell you otherwise.. I know little one things are strange, you are just born and life has all kinds of tossy turvy things coming your way. Your dad isn’t here…but he loves you… even if he doesn’t know it yet. And despite what they may think, they love each other too… so much they seem to hurt each other instead of saying nice things but they will figure things out, trust me baby doll… you will have them give you the galaxy on a platter…” The camera showed Ian across the room, probably at Lexi before he looked again at the infant in his arms. “Guess it’s just you and me then Ruth… that’s what she called you now isn’t it… her little baby Ruth, ironic… though you wouldn’t know about that story, but your name is cause your dad loves candies… I need to tell you about your dad… someone needs to let you know how amazing he is… and even if I am wrong… and he doesn’t find that happily ever after, it isn’t cause he won’t love you.” The footage stopped there with Ruth on Ian’s shoulder in the position she had spent the past three days assuming on Chris.

Lexi Garfield